Before the 1940s, bed bugs were widespread in homes, hotels, and boarding houses. Bed bugs were nearly eradicated by the widespread use of insecticides, such as DDT, during the mid- to late-twentieth century. In the past few years, however, bed bugs have been making a resurgence due to a decrease in the use of pesticides, an increase in international travel, and the fact that bed bugs are developing a resistance to pesticides. This resurgence prompted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to hold a National Bed Bug Summit in both 2009 and 2011.
Bed bugs commonly reside in seams of mattresses, edges of carpeting, bed frames, behind baseboards, window and door casings, picture frames, loosened wallpaper, upholstered furniture, cracks and crevices in the furniture, in walls or floors found inside homes or hotels, and are being transmitted by travelers to airplanes, taxis, luggage storage sites, and any place where containers having bed bugs rest or are stored. Bed bugs can enter a structure by attaching either themselves or their eggs to clothing, bedding, mattresses, and used furniture. Bed bugs may also, for example, enter homes by hiding in luggage that was present in a hotel infested with bed bugs, luggage that was stored in an overhead or underseat compartment or in the luggage area of an airplane, bus or train, luggage that temporarily stored by travelers or at a hotel bellhop station, in taxis or other forms of transport, or from any site having bed bugs to a container placed within that site.
There are several known ways for eradicating bed bugs, including the use of chemicals, natural products, pesticides, and sticky pad trays. Alternatively, companies may provide a thermal system that increases the heat within an entire structure, or in particular rooms, in an effort to reach a temperature that kills any bed bugs (e.g., ThermaPure structural pasteurization). Spot treatment of items, such as luggage, may require a device that is powered by electricity (e.g., ThermalStrike Expedition; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011-0113674). None of these currently-used bed bug control devices or chemicals, however, provide for a non-electricity using, disposable way to prevent the inadvertent transport of bed bugs hiding in a container such as luggage, into a non-infested site, such as one's home. This is a particular problem for travelers whose luggage may become infested with bed bugs while the luggage is present in a hotel room containing bed bugs.
Devices and methods for killing bed bugs, especially those found within luggage, are needed so that bed bugs are not brought into the home via the infested luggage.